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Although the effect of acoustic cues on speech segmentation has been extensively investigated, the role of higher order information (e.g., syntax) has received less attention. Here, the authors examined whether syntactic expectations based on subject-verb agreement have an effect on segmentation and whether they do so despite conflicting acoustic cues. Although participants detected target words faster in phrases containing adequate acoustic cues ("spins" in take spins and "pins" in takes pins), this acoustic effect was suppressed when the phrases were appended to a plural context (those women take spins/*takes pins [with the asterisk indicating a syntactically unacceptable parse]). The syntactically congruent target ("spins") was detected faster regardless of the acoustics. However, a singular context (that woman *take spins/takes pins) had no effect on segmentation, and the results resembled those of the neutral phrases. Subsequent experiments showed that the discrepancy was due to the relative time course of syntactic expectations and acoustics cues. Taken together, the data suggest that syntactic knowledge can facilitate segmentation but that its effect is substantially attenuated if conflicting acoustic cues are encountered before full realization of the syntactic constraint. © 2007 American Psychological Association.
Author(s): Mattys SL, Melhorn JF, White L
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance
Year: 2007
Volume: 33
Issue: 4
Pages: 960-977
Print publication date: 01/08/2007
ISSN (print): 0096-1523
ISSN (electronic): 1939-1277
Publisher: American Psychological Association
URL: https://doi.org/10.1037/0096-1523.33.4.960
DOI: 10.1037/0096-1523.33.4.960
PubMed id: 17683240
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